Usage Mondays: Prodigal

Hello and welcome to the 2nd weekly installment of Usage Mondays! Today we will explore the word "prodigal," its Biblical ties, and its checkered past as a compulsive gambler.

Most people are introduced to today's word through Jesus's ever-popular parable, "The Prodigal Son." The parable does not appear in any Gospel besides Luke (15:11-32), and it recounts the story of a rich man and his two sons. To paraphrase:

One day a rich man's younger son went up to him and asked for his half of the inheritance right then and there. This was odd because the father wasn't even dead yet, but because he was very kind and generous and he loved his sons SO much, he was just like "Ok, whatever you want! Have it! I don't care!!!!!" The young son waited around for like two seconds before jetting off into the city to have fun. He gambled, slept around, and "wasted his substance with riotous living." Inevitably, he blew through all the inheritance in a matter of days. 

When the money was all gone, the son thought about going back home but was too embarrassed about what he'd done. So he looked and looked for work until he finally got a job feeding pigs. Unfortunately there was also a famine at the time, so he was starving. In fact, he was really tempted to eat the pig slop. I'm not sure if he ended up eating it or not. Long story short, he'd arrived at rock bottom.

Finally he decided to go back home - BUT he would ask to be accepted as a servant because of all his shame. As soon as he got there, humbled and ragged and disgusting, his father gave him a huge hug and a big kiss and there was absolutely zero discussion of this servant business ever again. In fact, the father slaughtered a fattened calf for the celebration of having his son back.

Meanwhile the other son, the one who never left, was out in the fields WORKING when he heard his brother was back and that there would be a party. Naturally completely pissed off, he refused to celebrate with them. The father came out and invited him in. The son was like, "Hell no, you never slaughtered anything even remotely like a fattened calf for me. And I've been here the whole freaking time."

The father said, "Yes, yes, and that's awesome. Literally, everything I have has always been yours for the taking" (which at this point is true by definition because the younger brother already took half of what the father had, so obviously whatever he has left belongs to the older son. But whatever, this was supposed to be more about God etc). "We thought your brother was dead, but he's not!" cried the father. "It's only right to PARTAY!!!!!!!!!"

That is my translation of the story. But even if you'd read it in NIV or RSV or KJV, you'd get the same two themes out of it: Wastefulness & Returning Home. Wastefulness because of the Prodigal Son's spending habits in the city AND because of the father's massive welcome-home party. Returning Home because, obviously, the Prodigal Son returns home (in contrast to his brother, who never leaves home - but that's just as much of an exploration of theme).

Hence, people feel like "prodigal" must mean "returning home after a long time spent away," when really it DOESN'T MEAN THAT.

"Prodigal" means "lavish, or characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure." It comes from the Latin "prodigere," which means to drive away or to squander.

That is, the Prodigal Son is prodigal because he made it rain one too many times. Not because he came back home to Pops.

FATTENED CALF'D!